It feels a little odd to be writing about Christmas so far into January but we just got back from our Australia trip a few days ago. I choose not to lug my laptop around with me so have only just got the chance to put fingers to keys! So here it is!!
The first week of our holiday we spent in Perth. The weather was stinking hot and perfect! We stayed with our friends Kel and Bob and I spent quite a few hours lazing by their pool while Bob and Neil went hooning on the Ducati’s. It was great to catch up with them and other old friends who we hadn’t seen for a long time. We headed over to Bassendean for a barbeque with Al Cairney one night and he stocked us up with herbal remedies for our travels.
One of the main tasks to do while we were there was moving all our junk from one storage unit to another and then finding space for another 40+ boxes which had just arrived back from Jakarta. It looked a bit daunting but eventually we got it all in. We had a trip up to Joondalup to inspect our house and we also caught up with Alexis and Ulfa and visited them in their new home.
On 17th December we flew to Melbourne to spend Christmas and New Year with Heather and Anthony. Maya flew in the next day so we were complete! Melbourne is a wonderful city; great shops and restaurants and a fabulous market! We had four days enjoying city life, Christmas shopping, eating and drinking and even went to the Jean-Paul Gaultier exhibition which was incredible. Getting a close up look at his creations, the quality of the sewing and beading and the diversity of the fabrics was very impressive.
Christmas was spent up at the farm and it was a great time to be there. The garden looked fantastic, the vines and olive trees were heavy with young fruit and the plums and peaches were ripe and ready to eat. It was a pleasure to eat produce straight from the garden and we enjoyed delicious meals with several of Heather and Anthony’s neighbours.
On Boxing Day we de-camped to a rented house in the town of Flinders on the Mornington Peninsula for a change of scene. This is a very well-heeled area where the great and good of Melbourne have holiday homes. The coast line is rocky with high cliffs and occasional thin sandy beaches and dramatic surf. One day we drove to Portsea and had a great walk out to the fort on the eastern head at the very narrow tip of the peninsula, past Cheviot Beach where the Prime Minister Harold Holt lost his life back in 1967. We spent New Years Eve with friends of Heather and Anthony who we had met on our last night in Portugal last August. Thanks to Kate and Warren and their family for their hospitality!
We stayed in Australia for an extra week so that Neil could spend his 60th birthday en famille. Maya flew to Sydney to visit friends for a few days while we went back up to the farm. We all returned to Melbourne for Neil’s birthday on 5 January and celebrated with a barbeque on the banks of the Yarra River. It was a glorious evening and a lovely end to a great holiday.
Happy 2015!!
Suzy and Neil